So, why are we called HappyPorch?

We get asked this question a surprising amount, or at least it’s surprising to me. We love our quirky name and enjoy numerous word plays for a number of our internal projects. Yet, it is still a little surprising and gratifying when others are intrigued by the name itself.

A little company history

Way back in 1999, when I was even younger than I am now (blush), I registered endzone.co.uk as my personal little corner of the new and shiny internet world. Endzone came from my life long obsession with Ultimate Frisbee.

So, when the company was incorporated in Dec 2014, it seemed like a great idea to use Endzone as the company name too. Sadly the .com was not available, so we went with Endzone.io Ltd for a few years.

This never really sat well with us though. My previous business had a very similar name (for a similar reason), which was confusing. We discovered that the .io domain TLD has some issues. And as the team grew no-one felt deeply connected to the name.

So, after experimenting with HappyPorch as a sub-brand for a while, we decided to take the plunge and re-brand completely!

OK, but where did the name come from?

The real reason is tenuous, so hope you are not disappointed after a big build up!

For a long time, one of my favourite bits of poetry is the last stanza of a poem by Louis Macneice:

And not expecting pardon,

Hardened in heart anew,

But glad to have sat under

Thunder and rain with you,

And grateful too

For sunlight on the garden.

This little poem, and in particular this stanza, has been a pleasant beacon of light during some dark times in my life. So, when looking for a new company name I started from here and used this as inspiration. It needed to have the .com available and be easy to both say and spell - but it also needed to inspire a smile.

So, HappyPorch is one place where I can be grateful for sunlight on the garden.

Barry is the leader of the pack at Happy Porch. With over 15 years in the web development industry as a programmer and agency owner, he has a preternatural ability todecipher the systems and processes code that holds many teams back from achieving their goals. Partners say Barry gets to the root of issues quickly and makes it downright easy to deliver good work.

While he's unbelievably grounded, it's not uncommon to find him sailing through the trees as he paraglides his way round the world.